My trip to Africa

I left for my trip on a Wednesday, June 21, 2006 in the morning. After a flight to Washington D.C. then to Rome, then to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I finally left the airport. It was on this minibus ride to the Ibex hotel that I first met Awal (a Ghanaian contractor), Jeanne (Florida), and Sadiya (her daughter). Once in the hotel, I took what could be called a shower to rinse off the last 38 hours of traveling then went downstairs for dinner. Awal was gracious enough to invite the white girl to sit with him. I found out he is from Kumasi and quickly invited myself to stay with him once I found a way to get there (having taken that off my itinerary due to time constraints and budget). So we sat, ate, watched the dancing, and chatted about various things (he was returning from an extended stay in Tanzania-went for two weeks, stayed for a month). Then, I retired to bed. Now the music from downstairs (an Ethiopian Karaoke with dancers) continued well into my dreams. Eventually, the mosque began its calls (around 4:30). I was able to sleep in until 5:00 (I thank Javanese Mosques for that). The minibus came to pick us up around an hour late, I think that might be African time and we were off for the next leg of our flight.

The flight to Ghana was a pleasant 5 1/2 hour flight and Awal and I sat next to each other and talked a significant amount of time. Sadiya and Jeanne also joined me for part of the flight and we chatted. I was priviledged to see Sadiya's artwork titled: Idiot on a Plane. Now you may ask what did it look like? Well, an "idiot" sitting on the wing of a plane of course. Before we landed I promised I would get a cell phone and exchanged emails. My luggage was out quickly so I left the airport first. I was officially done traveling to Ghana at 9:30 am on Friday, June 23, 2006.